Campers
This summer seemed to go by faster than others. Hannah and I only had the chance to take one camping trip to the Northeast Kingdom in June for a couple days. This trip was just what we needed to get a final taste of summer camping in some of our favorite places, as well as some new ones that we added to our list.
We started our trip at Brighton State Park in Island pond, VT. The canoeing and wildlife viewing opportunities are endless around that part of the state. There are two nice beaches around the campground to relax and swim at, so if bushwhacking and getting eaten by mosquitoes isn’t your thing you can chill and have a few beers at the beach. We paid a visit to our favorite bog, went for a swim, and woke up in the morning to see the mist burn off Spectacle Pond. Next we headed to Maidstone State Park. We secured a lean-to on the lake for two days. On the first day we went to the beach and canoed on the lake for sunset. On the second it was the day of the eclipse. We hiked up Monadnock Mountain to a fire-tower for a good view. Later we hiked around part of Maidstone Lake in a lush forest of evergreens and wild blueberry bushes.
After the two days at Maidstone we didn’t have a plan for our next stop. We looked at the Gazetteer and decided to check out the Connecticut Lakes region in northeastern New Hampshire. It took us about an hour and a half to drive up to Big Deer State Park a few miles from Canada. The forests up there were even more coniferous than the northeast kingdom of Vermont. It felt wild and untamed; there was only one other person staying at the campground. Mountains, lakes, and rivers were everywhere. The canoeing spots were some of the best I have ever seen. We stayed there for a night and on our morning canoe we observed a moose feeding in a bog for about 45 minutes before he disappeared into a thick forested landscape.
It was a good trip— a working a vacation for me, but it felt like I also had time to relax. Hannah and I both came back home to Waterbury Center feeling inspired and excited that we found so many cool new places to explore.
